Auburn, Maine – Richard Smith tried to prepare for high heating-oil prices: He applied for home-heating assistance, he’s ready to seal off three rooms, and he has insulated his cellar and electrical outlets.
Despite that, the 75-year-old expects to dip into his savings to keep warm this winter, even with federal heating assistance.
With fuel prices surging since Hurricane Katrina, there are no guarantees heating oil won’t hit an unprecedented $3 a gallon.
Last year’s average of $1.95 a gallon in Maine was already enough to make many wince.
And officials worry that federal heating assistance for the poor will fall short of what’s necessary to keep people warm.
“Three-dollar-a-gallon gasoline is an inconvenience and a hardship. Three-dollar-a-gallon heating oil is life or death,” said Beth Nagusky, director of Maine’s Office of Energy Independence and Security.
A bigger proportion of homes in New England use oil for heat than any other region of the country because of its older housing stock and the late arrival of natural-gas access to many parts of the region, said Jonathan Cogan of the Energy Information Administration in Washington. The portion of homes using oil ranges from 70 percent in Maine to 39 percent in Massachusetts.
Many residents avoided the sting of high oil prices during last winter’s bitter cold by buying contracts that locked in prices early. This summer, with prices already high, many people paid around $2 a gallon for contracts. Then Katrina hit, knocking out oil supplies and gulf refineries and sending gas prices surging.
Heating-oil prices spiked as well, even though there’s a greater supply of heating oil than in the past six or seven years, Nagusky said.
